Consumption, emissions, discharges and waste

Statkraft's activities cause only a limited extent of waste production, emissions and discharges. Data for the Group's energy consumption, emissions and discharges, waste volumes and environmental incidents are reported in the corporate responsibility statement.

Electricity consumption

In 2015, electricity consumption in Statkraft was 1031 GWh, of which 80% was used for pumped-storage hydropower. Electricity use in the Group is certified as renewable in accordance with RECS.

Sandefjord district heating plant was opened by CEO Christian Rynning-Tønnesen in February 2015, and is one of Norway’s most modern and environment-friendly plants.

Local pollution

Statkraft faces few challenges as regards local pollution. The greatest environmental risk is associated with oil spills from vehicles, construction equipment and production equipment. Routines are implemented for registration of equipment containing oil, and the use of bio oils and switching to equipment with water-lubricated bearings also help reduce the risk of oil spills. There were no oil spills with permanent damage to the external environment in 2015.

There can be local challenges associated with noise and dust in connection with transport and construction, and we have also experienced challenges with odours and ash emissions from the district heating plants.

Waste handling

Statkraft’s operations generated about 61 400 tonnes of hazardous waste in 2015. More than 93 % of this was residual products from the biomass plant in Germany and the district heating plant in Trondheim, which mainly uses waste as energy source. In addition, 12 000 tonnes of other waste was generated. Statkraft goal is to separate as much as possible of the generated waste at source, and 82% of the waste (hazardous waste not included) was source separated in 2015.

Environmental incidents

Environmental incidents are recorded and followed up systematically throughout the Group and reported regularly to the management and board of directors. No serious environmental incidents have been registered since 2008. In 2015, 228 minor environmental incidents with little or no impact on the environment were reported. Most of them concerned short-term breaches of the river management regulations for hydropower plants and minor oil spills.